I  'J|]CO  'UO|>pClS  I 


rt-i  i 


IHe  First 

Ecclesiastical  Society 
in  Hartford 


1670-1903 


THE 


Warfield  Library 


First  Ecclesiastical  Society 


IN    HARTFORD 


1670-1903 


<!§? 


AN  ADDRESS  BY 

WlLLISTON  %ALKER 


ON  THE  OCCASION  OF 
THE  TRANSFER  OF  ITS 
PROPERTY  TO  THE  .  .  . 

First  Church  of  Christ  in  Hartford 

March   19,   1903 


yublialiri)  liij  the  (Eljurrli 


THE  CASE,   LOCKWOOD  &  BRAINARO  CO.. 
PRINTERS. 


^^^"^^^^^^^ 


HE  occasion  on  which  we  are  met  is  certainly  one 
of  significance.  The  dissolution  of  a  venerable  cor- 
poration that  has  served  its  Church  and  Us  commu- 
nity probably  for  two  hundred  and  thirty-three  years,  is  an 
episode  of  no  ordinary  moment.  It  marks  the  termination  of 
a  relationship  begun  in  the  early  days  of  this  commonwealth 
and  creditably  continued  through  successive  generations  to  the 
present  hour.  If  the  Ecclesiastical  Society — the  transfer  of 
whose  property  and  rights  to  the  First  Church  of  Hartford 
we  commemorate  to-night  —  has  ceased  to  be  the  necessity 
that  it  once  appeared  for  the  maintenance  of  the  temporal  in- 
terests of  the  Church,  and  seems  therefore  no  longer  desirable, 
we  recognize,  nevertheless,  that  it  has  served  this  Church  long 
and  well,  and  is  deserving  of  grateful  remembrance  on  this 
occasion.  We  remember,  also,  however,  that  the  matter  of 
fundamental  importance  for  which  the  First  Church  of  Christ 
stands  in  this  Hartford  community  is  the  maintenance  and 
development  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  through  the  worship, 
the  sacraments,  and  the  spiritual  life  of  those  who  are  asso- 
ciated in  or  influenced  by  its  fellowship.  And  hence  any 
organizations  or  devices  by  which  the  expenses  of  the  Church 
are  met,  and  its  secular  business  managed,  have  simply  a 
secondary  and  incidental  importance  in  the  accomplishment  of 
the  work  which  the  Church  aims  to  do.  The  Church  is  the 
permanent  and  vitally  essential  institution;  the  Society  is  but 
a  means  by  which,  during  part  of  its  history,  the  Church  has 
sought  to  accomplish  one  branch  of  its  work. 


The  ecclesiastical  society  is  characteristically  a  New  England 
device.  A  great  variety  of  methods  have  been  employed  to 
provide  for  the  support  of  Christian  institutions  since  the  time 
that  the  Apostles  gathered  together  in  the  upper  chamber  at 
Jerusalem,  and  those  among  the  believers  who  had  property 
sold  it  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow  disciples  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  life  of  worship  and  service  in  common.  Paul 
counseled  his  converts  to  the  new  faith  to  give  on  the  first  day 
of  the  week  as  the  Lord  had  prospered  them ;  and  though 
the  gifts  for  which  he  asks  were  primarily  for  the  poor  saints 
at  Jerusalem,  to  whom  he  wished  to  take  his  great  collection 
expressive  of  the  indebtedness  of  the  Gentile  churches  to  them, 
one  cannot  doubt  that  a  similar  voluntary  method  was  em- 
ployed to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  early  churches.  We  have 
evidence  that  this  free  system  appealed  strongly  to  the  Christians 
of  the  first  and  second  centuries  as  part  of  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel.  As  the  Church  grew,  and  especially  after  the  Roman 
Empire  was  converted  to  the  support  of  Christianity  as  the 
official  religion,  it  became  a  great  property  holder,  and  the 
Jewish  system  of  tithes  was  regarded,  from  the  fourth  century 
onward,  with  increasing  approval,  as  a  law  binding  upon  all 
Christian  people.  This  two-fold  system  of  support  from  prop- 
erty and  from  tithes  continued  through  the  Middle  Ages,  and 
was  that  in  use  in  England  at  the  time  that  the  Puritan 
founders  of  Hartford  separated  from  the  English  Establishment. 
But  this  method  of  providing  for  the  support  of  the  Christian 
ministry  and  worship  was  one  of  the  features  of  contemporary 
religious  life  which  the  earliest  Congregationalists  of  England 
rejected.  The  "separatists"  who  organized  the  Pilgrim  con- 
gregation at  Scrooby,  lived  in  exile  in  Leyden,  and  founded 
Plymouth,  believed,  like  the  Christians  of  the  first  and  second 
centuries,  that    the   support  of    the  Gospel   should   be    by   the 

4 


voluntary  gifts  of  its  disciples.  The  Puritans  who  founded 
the  other  Congregational  colonies  of  New  England,  at  first 
had  no  such  conviction ;  and  one  of  the  early  acts  of  the 
Massachusetts  Company  in  its  endeavor  to  foster  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  colonists  who  were  to  cross  the  Atlantic  was 
to  provide  at  public  charge  for  the  support  of  their  ministers 
and  the  erection  of  meeting  houses  in  the  new  land.  But 
here,  as  in  so  many  other  matters  of  ecclesiastical  organization 
in  early  New  England,  Plymouth  example  triumphed,  and  for 
a  time  all  the  Congregational  colonies  practiced  the  voluntary 
method  of  meeting  the  expenses  incident  to  the  maintenance 
of  public  worship. 

Yet  this  voluntary  system  soon  proved  to  have  serious  dis- 
advantages. The  expenses  incident  to  the  building  of  meeting 
houses  and  to  the  maintenance  of  the  numerous  salaried  officers, 
-  "  pastor,"  "  teacher  "  and  "  ruling  elder," —  which  their  read- 
ing of  the  New  Testament  led  them  to  deem  necessary  for 
the  proper  organization  of  the  Church,  proved  exceedingly 
burdensome  to  communities  the  means  of  which  at  best  were 
extremely  limited.  Not  all  men  were  generous  or  gave  in 
proportion  to  their  abilities.  Furthermore,  since  Massachusetts, 
by  a  law  of  March  4,  1635,  had  required  attendance  at  Church 
under  penalty  of  a  fine,  it  seemed  but  just  to  the  colonists  of 
that  day  "  that  not  only  members  of  churches  but  all  that  are 
taught  in  the  Word,  are  to  contribute  unto  him  that  teacheth." 
So  serious  was  the  question  which  the  inadequacy  of  the  volun- 
tary methed  forced  upon  the  consideration  of  the  Massachusetts 
authorities,  that  Governor  Winthrop  proposed  its  discussion  by 
the  Synod  which  met  at  Cambridge  in  August,  1637.  But 
the  ministers  who  there  gathered  refused  to  debate  it  lest  they 
should  be  thought  self-seeking.  In  November  following,  how- 
ever, the  Massachusetts  Legislature  sent  a  circular  letter  to  the 

5 


several  churches  asking  their  advice  as  to  the  desirability  of 
adopting  some  other  method  of  ministerial  maintenance ;  and 
the  result  was  the  passage  of  a  law  in  September,  1638,  by 
which  "  Evry  inhabitant  in  any  towne  ....  who  shall  not 
volentarily  contribute,  proportionably  to  his  ability,  wth  other 
freemen  of  the  same  towne,  to  all  comon  charges,  as  well  for 
vpholding  the  ordinances  in  the  churches  as  otherwise,  shalbee 
compelled  thereto  by  assessment  &  distres  to  bee  levied  by  the 
cunstable."  This  law,  though  preserving  the  principle  of  vol- 
untaryism in  appearance  at  least,  really  changed  the  support 
of  the  ministry  and  the  payment  of  Church  expenses  from 
a  charge  met  by  voluntary  gifts  to  one  collectible  by  taxation. 
Public  sentiment  prevented  its  enforcement  in  a  few  places, 
notably  in  Boston,  where  the  voluntary  system  continued  until 
it  was  supplanted,  in  the  eighteenth  century,  by  the  rental  of 
pews.  In  Boston,  taxation  for  ministerial  support  never  obtained 
a  foothold ;  but  in  other  Massachusetts  towns  it  became  the 
established  system.  The  same  difficulties  which  were  met  in 
Massachusetts  soon  led  the  other  colonies  to  abandon  the  volun- 
tary system.  The  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies,  in 
September,  1644,  evidently  moved  by  Massachusetts  example, 
recommended  the  several  associated  governments  to  pass  laws 
"that  eurie  man  voluntaryly  set  downe  what  he  is  willing  to  alowe 
to  that  end  &  vse  [ministerial  support],  and  if  any  man  refuse  to 
pay  a  meet  p'porcon,  that  then  hee  be  rated  by  authority  in 
some  lust  &  equall  way,  and  if  after  this  any  man  withhould  or 
delay  due  paymt  the  ciuill  power  to  be  exercised  as  in  other  lust 
debts."  Thus  invited,  Connecticut  enacted  this  recommenda- 
tion into  a  statute  on  October  25,  1 644.  New  Haven  had  a 
like  requirement  by  1 656,  and  probably  several  years  earlier ; 
and  even  Plymouth,  whose  example  had  established  the  volun- 

6 


tary  system  in  New  England,  was  induced  to  pass  a  similar, 
though  somewhat  milder,  statute,  in  June,  1655. 

These  laws  were  modified  and  strengthened  from  time  to 
time;  and,  in  November,  1647,  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
ordered  that  when  parsonages  should  be  built  by  vote  of  the 
inhabitants  in  any  town,  the  cost  should  be  duly  levied  upon  the 
taxpayers.  With  the  course  of  time,  the  appearance  of  volun- 
taryism which  had  at  first  been  preserved  was  abandoned ;  and 
the  Connecticut  Statute  of  May,  1697,  frankly  provided  that 
church  expenses :  — 

"  shall  be  levied  and  assessed  on  the  severall  inhabitants  in  each  town 
or  plantation  according  to  their  respective  estates  as  from  time  to  time  they 
shall  be  in  the  genii  list  or  lists  of  the  persons  and  estates  of  the  inhabitants 
of  each  town  or  plantation,  and  in  such  species,  viz. :  wheat,  indian  com, 
rie  and  pork,  and  m  such  proportion  and  prizes  of  ye  species  as  shall  from 
year  to  year  be  settled  by  the  Genii  Court  for  the  payment  of  the  ministers 
rates,  or  in  money  ;  which  said  sumes  or  payments  shall  be  collected  by 
such  person  or  persons  as  the  respective  townes  shall  from  year  to  year 

choose  and  appoint  for  that  end And  if  any  person  or  persons 

so  assessed  being  demanded  the  said  payments  levied  on  them  shall 
refuse  or  neglect  to  pay  in  the  same  ....  the  Assistt  or  Comissioner 
shall  issue  forth  his  warrant  to  the  constable  or  constables  of  the  town  or  to 
the  collectors  where  such  neglect  of  payments  shall  be,  to  distrein  the  same 
paiment  or  paiments  out  of  the  estate  or  estates  of  the  person  or  persons  so 
refusing  or  neglecting  to  pay." 

The  effect  of  this  statute  was  to  make  the  support  of  the 
Gospel  a  town  charge ;  and  the  money  to  be  collected  was 
appointed  by  town  vote  and  raised  by  taxation  like  any  other 
common  expense.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  such  a  situation  was  a 
relatively  simple  one  when  a  single  congregation  existed  within 
the  boundaries  of  a  town.  The  same  body  of  legal  voters 
which  deliberated  upon  and  appropriated  taxes  to  meet  the 
other  expenses  of  the  community  could  take  counsel  concerning 

7 


the  maintenance  of  the  church ;  and  we  find  a  number  of 
instances  of  such  votes  in  the  Hartford  Town  Records  when  as 
yet  only  one  church  existed  in  this  Hartford  community.  Thus, 
in  March,  1 640,  the  town  ordered  an  addition  of  five  pounds  to 
the  salary  of  Rev.  Samuel  Stone,  the  "teacher"  of  this  Hartford 
Church.  Ordinarily,  however,  the  town  seems  to  have  re- 
garded ministers'  salaries  as  existing  contracts  to  be  met  year 
by  year,  as  illustrated  in  this  vote,  of  December  7,   1661:  — 

"  Ye  towne  granted  ye  same  stipend  or  allowance  to  Mr.  Stone  and 
Mr.  Whiteinge  as  ye  last  yere  &  orded  ye  rate  makers  apoynted  to  make 
rates  as  formerly." 

The  death  of  Mr.  Stone,  in  July,  1 663,  brought  up,  of 
course,  the  question  of  what  compensation  was  to  be  paid  for 
his  services  during  the  fraction  of  the  year  preceding  his  decease ; 
and  we  find  the  Hartford  town  meeting  of  January  26,  1664, 
voting  to  his  widow  "  sixty  pownds  "  and  to  his  colleague  "  Mr. 
Whitting  eighty  pownds."  The  settlement  of  Rev.  Joseph 
Haynes,  in  1 664,  as  colleague  with  Rev.  John  Whiting  in  the 
pastorate  of  this  Church  is  reflected  that  year  in  the  town 
records  by  a  vote  of  seventy  pounds  "  for  his  suruise  in  the 
ministry." 

From  time  to  time  onward,  until  1 670,  frequent  votes  deter- 
mining the  salaries  of  the  colleague  pastorates  for  the  year 
appear  in  the  Hartford  Town  Records.  In  that  year  they 
cease  abruptly.  The  reason  was  undoubtedly  the  formation  of 
two  ecclesiastical  Societies  in  Hartford  because  of  the  division 
of  the  mother  church  of  the  town,  completed  by  the  formation 
of  the  Second  Church,  on  February  22,  1670,  as  we  should 
now  reckon  the  date.  Though  the  extant  records  of  our  First 
Ecclesiastical  Society  begin  in  1683,  there  seems  to  be  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  its  year  of  birth  was  that  of  the  division 

8 


of  the  Church  (1670),  and  that  it  was  the  questions  of  taxation 
raised  by  the  formation  of  another  church  in  Hartford  that 
brought  it  into  existence.  That  which  had  been  the  concern 
of  the  whole  town  when  but  one  church  existed  in  this  com- 
munity became  the  interest  of  only  part  of  the  inhabitants  when 
the  religious  forces  were  divided.  And  as  a  town  may  be 
divided  at  the  present  day  into  school  districts  each  taxing  itself 
for  the  support  of  public  instruction,  so  in  1 670  the  mainte- 
nance of  public  worship  became  the  concern  of  two  societies 
including,  between  them,  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  who 
now  discussed  in  their  separate  society  meetings  those  ecclesi- 
astical questions  which  before  the  division  had  been  determined 
by  the  whole  body  of  legal  voters  assembled  in  town  meeting. 
The  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  was  simply  the  legal  voters 
attached  to  the  First  Church  met  together  to  provide  for  its 
temporal  necessities. 

Though  no  legislative  authorization  for  the  formation  of  this 
Society  has  been  preserved,  the  existence  of  societies  in  the 
colony  is  clearly  indicated  in  the  Connecticut  statutes  contained 
in  the  "  Book  of  the  General  Laws  "  in  1 672-3.  This  enact- 
ment ordered  that 

"  where  there  is  more  than  one  Assembly  in  a  Town  they  shall 
severally  meet  to  Consider  and  determine  [the  minister's  salary]  as  afore- 
said, and  all  persons  shall  Contribute  to  one  or  both  of  those  Societies 
within  their  Township." 

It  appears  that  lands  were  divided  for  taxing  purposes  between 
the  two  societies  according  to  the  elective  affinity  of  their  own- 
ers. Such  an  assignment  is  contemplated  in  the  Connecticut  law 
of  October,  1 676,  which  provided  : — 

"  that  where  there  are  more  then  one  assemblies  in  a  towne  .... 
the  severall  inhabitants  shall  pay  towards  the  minister's  mayntenance  of  one 
or  both  theire  societies  as  foloweth,  viz. :  if  they  shall  choose  to  pay  to 

9 


one,  they  shall  pay  in  full  proportion  with  the  rest  of  that  societie ;  if 
not,  they  shall  pay  to  both  societies ;  the  one  halfe  of  every  such  persons 
estate  shall  be  rated  with  the  people  of  one  society,  and  the  other  halfe  of 
theire  estates  with  those  of  the  other  societie,  in  full  proportion  with  theire 
neighboures  of  each  societie." 

This  system  of  assignment  by  the  owner's  choice  was  soon 
modified  in  a  way  that  is  illustrated  by  the  only  instance  con- 
tained in  the  first  volume  of  "  Hartford  Town  Votes  "  in  which 
the  town  as  a  whole  passed  laws  upon  ecclesiastical  finance  after 
the  dividing  year  1670.  When,  in  1694,  the  inhabitants  on 
the  east  side  of  the  river,  in  what  is  now  East  Hartford,  had 
secured  the  countenance  of  the  Legislature  for  the  establishment 
of  religious  institutions  of  their  own,  the  members  of  the  two 
Hartford  societies  got  together  in  town  meeting  and  passed  a 
grudging  vote  to  the  effect :  — 

"  that  all  the  Land  on  the  East  side  [of  the  Connecticut]  that  Belongs 
to  any  of  the  people  of  west  side  Shall  pay  to  the  ministy  of  the  west  side 
and  that  all  the  Land  on  the  west  side  shall  pay  to  the  minister  of  the 
west  side  tho  it  Belongs  to  the  people  of  the  East  side." 

The  tendency  to  make  location  rather  than  the  choice  of  the 
owner  the  determining  factor  in  the  incidence  of  taxation  evi- 
dently grew  as  the  seventeenth  century  drew  to  a  close ;  and  in 
October,  1699,  the  Legislature  ordered: — 

"  that  where  this  Court  hath  determined  the  bounds  and  limits  of  any 
society  in  any  town  or  plantation  in  this  Colonie  where  there  are  more  than 
one  societye,  that  in  every  such  case  all  persons  living  within  those  bounds 

and  limits  and  their  estates  lying  within  the  same  shall be  rateable 

according  to  law  for  the  support  and  maintainance  of  the  ministrye  of  that 
societye,  any  lawe,  usage  or  custome  to  the  contrary  in  any  wise  notwith- 
standing." 

But  it  would  not  appear  that  in  Hartford  a  hard  and  fast 
geographical  line  was  ever  drawn  between  the  First  and  Second 
Societies  by  legal  authority. 

10 


By  the  time  our  Ecclesiastical  Society  was  being  formed,  a 
further  question  was  coming  into  prominence  in  New  England, 
which  naturally  arose  out  of  the  share  of  the  legal  voters  of  a 
society  or  town  in  the  payment  of  church  expenses  and  the 
assessment  of  taxes  by  which  those  expenses  were  met.  If  these 
men  were  responsible  for  the  support  of  the  minister  whether 
they  were  members  of  the  Church  or  not,  ought  they  not  to 
have  some  share  in  the  choice  of  the  minister  that  they  were 
bound  to  support  ?  Was  it  right  that  there  should  be  "  taxation 
without  representation  "  ? — to  quote  the  New  England  principle 
which  the  Revolution  was  to  put  into  the  fore-front  of  political 
discussion.  This  question  was  of  little  importance  in  early 
Massachusetts  since  there,  from  1 63 1  to  1 664,  all  legal  voters 
were  Church  members;  nor  was  it  of  concern  in  early  New 
Haven,  for,  as  in  Massachusetts,  the  franchise  was  there  restricted 
to  church  members  until  1665.  In  Connecticut  Colony  no  such 
limitation  ever  had  place.  And  we  find  the  inhabitants  of 
Connecticut  towns,  whether  Church  members  or  not,  possessed 
of  a  voice  in  the  choice  of  their  ministers  at  a  comparatively 
early  period.  In  October,  1666,  the  Connecticut  Legislature 
proposed  for  the  consideration  of  a  "  Synod,"  which  was  planned 
for  the  following  May,  the  query :  — 

"  whether  it  doth  not  belong  to  ye  body  of  a  Towne  collectively, 
taken  joyntly,  to  call  him  to  be  their  minister  whom  the  Church  shal  choose 
to  be  their  officer." 

Though  the  failure  of  the  "  Synod "  to  meet  prevented  an 
answer  by  the  Connecticut  churches  to  the  Legislature's  enquiry, 
its  own  actions  gave  an  interpretation  within  a  year.  On 
October  1 0,  1 667,  the  Connecticut  General  Court  ordered  all 
freemen  and  householders  of  the  town  of  Windsor  to  meet  and 
to  determine  by  vote  whether  they  would  have  Rev.  Nathaniel 

II 


Chauncey  as  their  minister  or  not.  In  this  action  no  distinction 
was  made  between  those  who  were  members  of  the  Church  and 
those  outside  its  covenant. 

The  right  of  those  who  assessed  and  paid  taxes,  thus  to  share 
in  the  choice  of  the  minister  was  one  evidently  demanded  by  the 
spirit  of  the  time,  and  though  the  Massachusetts  Legislature,  in 
1668,  forbade  any  but  Church  members  in  full  communion 
to  share  in  the  selection  of  their  minister,  the  tide  was  too 
strong  to  be  resisted  in  that  colony  also,  and  the  townspeople 
exercised  the  right  of  choice  irrespective  of  the  question  of  their 
Church  membership,  at  Salem  in  1672,  and  at  Dedham  in  1685. 
Massachusetts,  in  1 692-3,  enacted  a  general  statute  ordering 
that  the  choice  of  a  minister  should  be  by  the  Church,  and  that 
that  selection  should  then  be  ratified  or  rejected  by  the  legal 
voters,  who  should  fix  and  raise  the  minister's  salary.  And,  in 
1  708,  the  Connecticut  Legislature  went  so  far  as  to  provide :  — 

"  that  the  major  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  any  town,  plantation,  or  societie, 
qualified  as  the  law  directs  to  vote  in  all  other  town  affairs,  or  are  members 
in  full  communion  with  the  church  in  the  said  town  or  societie,  that  shall 
be  present  at  a  town  or  societie  meeting  legally  warned,  shall  have  power 
by  the  major  vote  of  them  so  met  to  call  and  settle  a  minister ;  and  the 
minister  so  called  and  settled  shall  be  the  minister  of  such  town  or  societie, 
any  law,  usage,  or  custom  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding." 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe,  therefore,  that  all  legal 
voters  of  our  Society  had  a  voice  in  the  choice  of  their  minister 
from  the  first.  Its  early  relations  to  the  Church  seem  to  have 
been  cordial  and  to  have  foreshadowed  that  harmony  of  co- 
operation which  has  always  characterized  the  connection  of  the 
two  bodies  in  Hartford.  The  vote  of  November  24,  1682, 
fixing  the  salary  of  Rev.  Timothy  Woodbridge  then  just  settled, 
at  one  hundred  pounds,  is  described  in  the  Society's  records  as 
passed  at  "  a  meeting  of  the  First  Church  and  congregation  in 

12 


Hartford,"  and  the  Society  had  had  a  share  — just  how  extensive 
it  is  hard  to  say  —  in  the  negotiations  which  had  led  to  Mr. 
Woodbridge's  settlement. 

Indeed  the  tendency  of  custom,  as  well  as  the  practical  effect 
of  the  legislation  which  has  been  noted,  was  to  give  the  Society 
during  the  eighteenth  century,  in  many  parts  of  Connecticut,  not 
merely  a  share,  but  the  leading  part  in  the  choice  of  the  minister. 
This  was  conspicuously  the  case  in  the  eastern  portion  of  the 
colony;  and  it  had  its  illustration  as  late  as  1825,  in  so  important 
a  church  as  the  First  Church  of  New  Haven,  where  the  choice 
of  Rev.  Leonard  Bacon  as  pastor  was  effected  by  the  Society 
and  ratified  by  the  Church.  Absence  of  record  in  the  case  of 
our  Church  makes  it  impossible  definitely  to  affirm  what  the 
eighteenth  century  practice  here  was;  but,  it  looks  as  if  the 
Society  here  was  the  leader  in  the  settlement  of  Rev.  Daniel 
Wadsworth  in  1  732,  of  Rev.  Edward  Dorr  in  I  747-8,  and  of 
Rev.  Nathan  Strong  in  I  774.  When  Rev.  Joel  Hawes  was 
chosen  pastor  of  this  Church  in  1818  the  Church  acted  first. 
The  Society  concurred  in  the  choice  a  week  later.  This  order 
of  procedure  observed  in  Hawes's  settlement  has  continued  to 
be  the  usage  of  the  First  Church  and  Society,  and  certainly 
since  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  thought 
to  be  far  more  Congregational  than  to  have  the  society  take  the 
initiative.  It  corresponds  not  merely  with  the  practice  of  early 
New  England,  but  with  the  significance  which  the  Church  itself 
should  possess  in  the  administration  of  affairs  of  such  spiritual 
importance  as  the  choice  of  a  pastor.  Regarding  such  more 
thoroughly  business  problems  as  the  erection  of  a  meeting-house 
or  of  other  buildings  for  public  worship,  their  care,  maintenance 
and  development,  the  Society  has  always  led,  since  a  Society  has 
been  connected  with  this  Church. 

13 


In  the  State-Church  system  under  which  societies  came  into 
being,  all  taxpayers  were,  as  we  have  seen,  bound  to  contribute 
to  the  expenses  of  the  Gospel,  and  unless  specially  exempt  were 
deemed  members  of  the  Congregational  society  within  the 
boundaries  of  which  they  resided.  Exemption  from  payment 
to  the  support  of  the  Congregational  ministry  was  thus  an  excep- 
tion, and  an  exception  not  acquired  without  effort.  The  Episco- 
palians of  Connecticut  gained  such  exemption  in  1  727,  and  two 
years  later  it  was  extended  to  Quakers  and  Baptists ;  but  it 
applied  to  representatives  of  these  unestablished  polities  only 
where  actual  congregations  existed  which  those  who  sought 
exemption  could  attend,  and  any  who  availed  themselves  of  this 
right  were  ultimately  compelled  to  abjure  allegiance  to  the 
established  Congregational  order  by  lodging  with  the  town  clerk 
a  formal  renunciation  of  connection  with  the  Congregational 
Society  and  of  association  with  their  new  fellowship.  They  had 
to  pay  at  least  as  much  in  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  worship 
which  they  preferred  as  would  have  been  assessed  upon  them 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  Congregational  establishment,  lest  their 
renunciation  of  its  support  should  be  for  pecuniary  advantage 
rather  than  by  reason  of  religious  conviction. 

The  difficulties  of  escape  from  payment  for  the  support  of 
Congregational  public  worship  and  the  consequent  countenance 
thus  given  to  the  churches  of  the  Congregational  order  at  the 
expense  ot  other  forms  of  faith  was  felt  to  be  a  great  grievance ; 
and,  in  the  increasing  spirit  of  independence  from  churchly  con- 
trol, it  was  felt  equally  to  be  a  grievance  by  many  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  nineteenth  century  to  have  to  pay  for  the  support 
of  ecclesiastical  institutions  at  all.  The  party  which  desired  to 
do  away  with  the  ancient  state  of  affairs  grew  rapidly  during  the 
opening  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  effected  a  complete 
revolution,  in   1818,  when  a  new  Constitution  for  Connecticut 

14 


was  adopted,  which  still  remains  in  force.  By  this  Constitution 
all  support  of  religion  within  the  boundaries  of  this  State  became 
voluntary,  and  all  religious  organizations  were  placed  on  an 
equality  before  the  law.  The  society  ceased  to  be  a  state 
institution.  It  survived,  but  as  a  voluntary  partnership  or  asso- 
ciation. Yet  the  framers  of  our  Constitution  were  true  to  the 
reputation  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  as  a  "  land  of  steady 
habits,"  and  they  desired  that  the  change  which  the  Constitution 
effected  should  be  accomplished  with  as  little  violence  as  pos- 
sible. Hence  the  Constitution  provided  that  all  persons  should 
remain  members  of  the  society  to  which  they  then  belonged, 
unless  they  formally  gave  notice  to  its  clerk  of  their  withdrawal 
from  its  fellowship.  Thus  the  old  State-supported  society  passed 
quietly  and  without  friction  over  into  the  voluntary  association 
as  a  consequence  of  the  adoption  of  the  Connecticut  Constitu- 
tion of  1818.  But  though  now  a  voluntary  organization,  a 
Connecticut  ecclesiastical  society,  under  the  Constitution,  had, 
and  still  has,  full  legal  right  to  assess  and  collect  a  tax  upon  its 
members  by  a  majority  vote  of  a  duly  warned  meeting.  The 
property  of  all  of  its  members  is  liable  for  its  taxes  and  debts. 
But  a  method  of  raising  money,  so  similar  to  the  taxation 
imposed  by  public  authority  for  State  expenses,  has  proved  itself 
increasingly  unpopular,  and  has  been  seldom,  if  ever,  resorted 
to  of  late  years  in  Connecticut.  It  was  enforced,  however,  in 
our  Society  for  some  years  after  the  adoption  of  the  Connecticut 
State  Constitution,  and  it  was  not  until  1847  that  our  Society 
began  meeting  its  expenses  by  assessment  upon  the  pews. 

In  Massachusetts  a  similar  controversy  in  the  early  years  of 
the  nineteenth  century  precipitated  a  curious  discussion  involving 
the  rights  of  ecclesiastical  societies,  from  which  Connecticut  was 
fortunately  exempt.  The  section  of  the  Massachusetts  Constitu- 
tion of   1  780,  known  as  the  "  Bill  of  Rights,"  had  been  adopted 

15 


nearly  a  generation  before  the  Unitarian  controversy  began,  and, 
of  course,  without  any  thought  of  that  discussion  in  the  minds  of 
its  framers.  It  had  provided  that  "  the  several  towns,  parishes, 
precincts,  and  other  bodies  politic,  or  religious  societies,"  should 
"  have  the  exclusive  right  of  electing  their  public  teachers." 
These  expressions  were  certainly  indefinite,  and  there  seems  to 
be  reason  to  believe  that  the  words  "religious  societies"  and 
"public  teachers"  were  simply  rather  elaborate  eighteenth  cen- 
tury circumlocutions  to  avoid  the  commoner  and  simpler  expres- 
sions, "  churches  "  and  "  ministers."  However  this  may  have 
been,  the  interpretation  given  to  this  Constitution  by  the  cele- 
brated Dedham  case,  in  i  820,  constituted  one  of  the  reckoning 
points  of  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  societies.  That  case  arose 
in  this  way.  In  1818,  Rev.  Alvan  Lamson,  a  minister  of 
Unitarian  sympathies,  was  called  to  the  pastorate  at  Dedham 
by  the  votes  of  a  minority  of  the  church  members  and  of  a 
decided  majority  of  the  members  of  the  parish.  A  majority  of 
the  church  opposed  his  settlement.  The  church  was  evidently 
divided,  and  the  legal  question  then  arose  which  faction  —  the 
majority  or  minority — was  the  church  of  Dedham,  and  as  such, 
entitled  to  the  use  of  the  property,  the  title  of  which  stood  in 
the  name  of  the  ecclesiastical  society.  After  a  trial,  in  1820, 
notable  for  the  conspicuity  of  the  counsel  who  argued  the  case, 
the  legal  questions  being  presented  by  Daniel  Webster  and 
Theron  Metcalf  before  the  full  court,  presided  over  by  Chief 
Justice  Isaac  Parker,  the  Supreme  Court  of  Massachusetts  de- 
cided that  a  church  had  no  legal  existence  save  in  connection 
with  an  ecclesiastical  society ;  and  that,  should  a  dispute  arise 
within  a  church,  that  faction,  however  large,  was  the  church, 
and  entitled  to  the  use  of  the  property  of  the  society  which  a 
majority  of  the  society  should  recognize.  This  left  to  the  eccle- 
siastical society  the  determination,  very  largely,  of  the  religious 

16 


complexion  of  the  congregation  the  temporal  interests  of  which 
it  was  organized  to  serve.  No  such  serious  dispute  occurred  in 
Connecticut.  But  there  has  been  not  a  little  recent  discussion 
of  the  necessity  or  desirability  of  ecclesiastical  societies,  under 
the  altered  conditions  of  the  present,  so  unlike  those  which 
obtained  when  they  were  originally  called  into  being.  Our 
National  Council  debated  the  matter  in  1877,  and  in  1880; 
and  legislative  action  has  now  made  the  formation  of  a  church 
without  a  society  possible  in  all  the  New  England  States. 

Our  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  has  had  relatively  an  unevent- 
ful history.  It  is  to  its  credit  that  the  interest  which  it  excites 
is  antiquarian  rather  than  historical.  It  has  been  a  harmonious 
body.  It  has  never  had  a  quarrel  with  the  Church  which  it 
has  so  long  served.  In  its  own  internal  relations  it  has  mani- 
fested good  feeling  and  unity.  The  only  considerable  difference 
of  opinion  which  has  marked  its  history  was  when  it  built  the 
second  meeting-house  which  this  Church  has  occupied,  after 
the  old  structure  on  the  Post  Office  Square  had  served  its  use- 
fulness. Discussions  begun  in  1 727  were  continued  until  the 
new  edifice  was  erected  in  I  739,  nearly  on  the  site  where  our 
present  house  of  worship  stands.  These  disputes  as  to  where 
the  structure  should  be  built,  on  which  side  of  a  street  it  should  be 
placed,  and  of  the  relative  desirability  of  various  sites  suggested, 
form  a  curious  episode,  as  well  as  the  only  important  contro- 
versy, in  the  history  of  our  Society.  But  it  is  evident  that  the 
majority  choose  well,  for  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society  has 
been  satisfied  with  the  site  selected  for  more  than  one  hundred 
and  sixty  years  past.  When  with  the  growth  of  Hartford  and 
the  decay  of  the  wooden  meeting-house  of  1  739,  larger  quarters 
were  necessary,  the  Society  determined,  in  1 805,  this  time 
peacefully  and  harmoniously,  to  build  once  more  on  the  site,  the 
selection  of  which  had  once  involved  so  much  dispute,  and  to 

17 


this  decision  was  due  the  completion  of  the  present  noble  edifice, 
in  1 807.  It  was  not  quite  in  its  present  appearance,  however, 
that  this  structure  in  which  we  are  assembled  met  the  eyes  of 
those  who  attended  its  dedication.  It  had  not  the  recess  behind 
the  pulpit,  nor  the  arched  roof  over  our  heads,  nor  the  organ. 
No  means  of  heating  relieved  the  cold  of  winter  until  the  Society 
voted  to  permit  the  introduction  of  stoves  in  1815.  No  carpets 
deadened  the  sound  of  foot-falls  in  its  aisles  until  1839.  Square 
pews  were  erected  about  its  sides ;  and  the  galleries,  which  still 
seem  so  lofty,  were  five  feet  higher  than  they  are  at  present; 
while  the  pulpit  was  at  a  height  sufficiently  greater  than  its 
present  altitude  to  command  not  merely  the  congregation  below 
but  the  loftier  galleries  as  well.  The  year  1835  saw  the  lower- 
ing of  the  galleries,  and  extensive  alterations,  in  1 852,  brought 
the  whole  interior  of  the  house  of  worship  substantially  into  its 
present  form,  except  for  the  windows  and  tablets  which  com- 
memorate so  many  who  have  served  this  church  well  and  whose 
memories  are  held  in  deserved  honor. 

Our  Society  has  not  been  unresponsive  to  the  increasing  needs 
of  church  life  as  newer  forms  of  religious  activity  have  de- 
veloped. A  meeting-house  was  sufficient  for  public  worship 
until  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  No  evening 
prayer-meeting  was  held  in  Hartford  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Church  as  a  whole  until  1  798,  and  no  Sunday-School  gathered 
the  children  under  its  instruction  until  1818.  But,  with  the 
demand  which  these  new  agencies  for  Christian  life  and  nurture 
made,  the  Society  supplied  the  need.  The  year  1813  saw  the 
foundations  of  a  "  Conference  Building "  laid  on  a  lot  near 
Temple  Street ;  and  its  full  use  for  the  mid-week  lecture  and 
other  meetings  probably  began  early  in  1814.  Within  its  walls, 
one  of  the  four  Sunday-Schools  organized  for  the  city  at  the 
introduction  of  the  Sunday-School  into  Hartford,  met  in  1818. 

18 


But  this  building  proved  inadequate  for  the  growing  needs  of 
the  congregation,  and  in  1 83 1  -32  the  present  Lecture-Room 
was  obtained.  To  it  the  parlors  in  which  so  many  of  our  even- 
ing meetings  are  held  were  added  in  1875.  Nor  has  it  been  in 
the  study  of  the  wants  of  the  congregation  alone  that  the  Society 
has  always  shown  a  generous  interest.  The  improvement  of 
its  property  and  its  surroundings  have  been  increasingly  its  con- 
cern, as  illustrated  conspicuously  of  recent  years  in  the  reno- 
vation of  Gold  Street. 

Our  Ecclesiastical  Society  has  had  a  conspicuous  part  in  the 
development  of  the  musical  services  of  the  Church.  Its  interest 
in  church  music  began  early.  New  England  thought  at  the  time 
of  its  organization  opposed  the  use  in  public  worship  of  any  but 
versified  portions  of  Holy  Writ.  The  uninspired  hymn  was 
rejected,  and  the  absence  of  books  in  which  the  tunes  were 
printed  led  to  singing  by  memory,  or  "  rote "  as  it  was  called, 
with  the  result  that  such  local  modifications  were  made  in  music 
that  the  same  tune  was  often  scarcely  recognizable  as  used  in 
adjacent  parishes.  The  best  that  Cotton  Mather  could  say  of  the 
singing  of  New  England  in  his  day  was  that  it  was  ' '  not  worse 
than  what  is  [heard]  in  many  other  parts  of  the  World."  But 
the  early  eighteenth  century  saw  an  effort  for  reform,  and  this 
region  of  Connecticut  was  agitated  (1  727-1  732)  over  singing  by 
"  rote "  or  by  "  rule."  To  some  it  seemed  as  if  the  introduction 
of  the  tune-book  would  be  but  the  first  step  in  a  process  the 
logical  completion  of  which  would  be  the  introduction  of  the 
Prayer-Book  and  the  imposition  of  the  Liturgy  which  the  found- 
ers of  New  England  thought  themselves  to  have  escaped  by 
crossing  the  Atlantic;  but  our  Society  had  no  such  fears,  though 
it  moved  with  its  customary  caution.  On  June  20,  1 733,  it 
voted  that,  after  three  months'  practice  by  such  members  of  the 
congregation   as   inclined   to  sing  by  "rule,"   the  new  method 

19 


should  be  tried  until  the  annual  meeting  of  December,  and  then 
a  further  vote  should  be  taken  on  the  propriety  of  its  continu- 
ance. The  innovation  proved  its  permanent  value.  So,  too,  the 
uninspired  hymn,  which  had  conquered  its  place  in  the  esteem 
of  our  churches  by  reason  of  the  poetic  genius  with  which  Isaac 
Watts  expressed  the  aspirations,  hopes  and  praises  of  Christian 
people,  found  its  place  in  our  public  worship  through  the  vote  of 
the  Ecclesiastical  Society.  In  I  756,  it  expressed  its  judgment 
"  that  Dr.  Watts'  Psalms  may  be  sung  in  the  Congregation  at 
the  time  of  Divine  Worship  at  least  half  ye  time."  Nearly 
three-quarters  of  a  century  later,  the  Society  countenanced 
another  musical  innovation,  admitting  the  organ  which  early 
New  England  usage  had  rejected.  In  1 822,  a  small  instrument 
was  installed  by  voluntary  subscription;  but  this  organ  proved 
inadequate  and  was  replaced,  in  1833,  by  one  purchased  by 
the  Society  by  "  a  tax  on  the  polls  and  ratable  estates  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Society " ;  and  it,  in  turn,  gave  way,  by  gift, 
to  the  present  organ,  in  1 883,  after  half  a  century  of  useful 
service. 

The  Society  had  its  burden  of  perplexities  in  all  the  changes 
of  value  characteristic  of  the  fluctuating  paper  money  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  Rev.  Timothy  Woodbridge  had  been 
settled,  in  1 684,  at  a  salary  of  one  hundred  pounds ;  but  by 
1731  it  took  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  in  paper  money  to 
equal  the  amount.  Rev.  Daniel  Wadsworth  received  payment, 
in  1  732,  in  one  hundred  thirty  pounds  of  bills,  as  they  then 
stood ;  but,  by  1 747,  it  took  four  hundred  pounds  in  paper 
currency  to  discharge  the  indebtedness.  Rev.  Edward  Dorr 
was  settled  in  1 748  at  seventy  pounds  of  silver  and  his  fire- 
wood ;  but  the  account  book  which  he  kept,  and  which  has 
come  down  to  us,  shows  that  he  was  paid  largely  "  in  kind," 
and  for  the  most  part  directly  by  the  members  of  the  Society, 

20 


with  many  of  whom  he  kept  separate  accounts.  Nor  has  the 
Society  been  without  its  fair  share  of  worldy  shrewdness,  and, 
at  times,  almost  of  business  unscrupulousness.  In  1 682,  John 
Holloway  gave  lands,  now  on  North  Main  Street,  with  the 
express  provision  that  they  should  belong  to  the  Church  forever. 
They  do  so  in  a  sense ;  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  Society 
rented  these  lands  in  May,  1  774,  during  the  business  stringency 
brought  about  by  the  political  and  commercial  difficulties  just 
preceding  the  Revolutionary  War,  for  the  lump  sum  of  one 
hundred  and  forty-one  pounds  and  fifteen  shillings  and  "one 
wheat  corn  on  the  first  Monday  of  January"  for  nine  hundred 
years.  Those  of  our  successors  in  the  First  Church  who  are  here, 
and  we  may  trust  that  many  will  be  here,  in  2674,  may  re-enter 
into  possession  of  the  land  which  the  Society  thus  practically 
alienated.  Nor  was  this  the  only  instance  in  which  the  Society 
thus  made  void  the  real  intent  of  its  benefactors.  A  parcel  of 
three  acres  of  pine  lands,  given  by  the  same  John  Holloway, 
was  similarly  rented,  in  1  759,  for  a  single  payment  of  fifteen 
pounds,  and  a  silver  penny  a  year,  until  2758.  I  have  not 
heard  that  our  Treasurer  has  collected  the  rent  in  recent  years. 
But,  taken  as  a  whole,  the  record  of  the  Society,  business- 
wise  and  in  all  other  respects,  is  a  very  honorable  one.  Of 
how  much  faithful,  unpaid  service  it  has  been  the  recipient. 
To  mention  a  few  only  of  the  honored  dead  of  recent  years 
whose  names  occur  to  all  our  memories,  what  pictures  of 
fidelity,  of  devotion  to  its  interests,  of  affection  for  all  that 
made  for  its  welfare,  the  names  of  Calvin  Day,  of  Charles 
Seymour,  of  John  C.  Parsons,  of  Robert  Day  and  of  Rowland 
Swift,  bring  up  to  recollection.  They  are  but  some  of  the 
later  members  in  a  long  line  of  honorable  service  reaching 
back  more  than  two  hundred  and  thirty  years.  It  has  been 
a  notable  succession  of  those  who  have  labored  for  the  welfare 

21 


of  the  Church,  the  material  interests  of  which  have  been 
committed  to  the  charge  of  this  Society.  Now  that  the  First 
Ecclesiastical  Society  passes  away,  we  remember  that  it  existed 
only  for  the  Church,  that  it  was  a  device  growing  out  of  the 
colonial  conditions  which  have  ceased  to  be.  It  is  no  longer 
necessary  for  the  welfare  of  this  First  Church  of  Christ  in 
Hartford.  It  is  probably  well  that  the  Church  itself,  through 
an  appropriate  committee,  should  take  charge  more  directly 
and  with  less  elaborate  machinery,  of  its  business  affairs.  But 
we  may  well  think  kindly  and  gratefully  of  the  Society  which 
is  now  to  be  dissolved.  It  has  served  this  Church  faithfully, 
and  its  memory  is  one  of  usefulness  and  honor. 


22 


